Did you know that only 1% of people who have had shingles once get it again?
I learned that last week, when I googled webmd here in Bulgaria. I already had shingles in my first month of the Philippines and God healed which is AWESOME (see my other blog below). But honestly, again? Really? I’m only 22! I’ve already learned that God can do the impossible. I’ve already learned that He is more than capable of healing me. So what do I need to learn this time?
Well He taught me two things.
Firstly, God pulled back the curtain on my pride. Every month I ask God to give me a word, a word that will define my growth for the month. This month, Month 8, was humility. Go figure…
Month 8 is also my first month as a team leader. So darn right, I was set on being the best team leader ever. Nothing was going to stop me. I had my list of dos and donts and a ton of references for great leadership. I was going to do everything I was supposed to do to the nth degree to prove… well I guess that I’m worth something.
Well shingles stopped me. Suddenly I was debilitated again. I couldn’t raise my arm very high without intense pain, let alone pull weeds or play volleyball as our ministry for the month requires. Leaders are supposed to lead by example and how was I supposed to do that with my infected armpit from hell?
Well God shut me up right there and reminded me where my value was. My worth is not in being the best team leader ever. That doesn’t earn me any points on God’s love-o-meter. That’s unconditional. It is 101% pride when I think that I could ever do anything to earn God’s love. My security should be found in just being a daughter of Christ. Whether I have to sit on the sidelines during volleyball and put this dumb cream on my shingled skin, my value is found in Him. I don’t need to prove anything.
Secondly, God helped remind me that He is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever. I mean, I already know this. I learned it way back in Sunday school. But when I first saw that my shingles had come back, my initial thought was “Ah crap, I probably need to actually use medicine this time.” It was as though I had forgotten that the God who had healed my shingles in the Philippines was capable of healing it a second time in Bulgaria. No knocks against using medicine (calm down Mom, I’m listening to the doc) because God can totally use medicine to heal us, but as our Healer, He should be the first person that we go to.
I knew this in the Philippines, but something in me forgot as time went on. And we can’t afford that. We can’t afford to forget the God we serve. That was the whole reason that God made the Israelites do weird things in the OT. It was so they wouldn’t forget that their God was the same God who delivered them out of Egypt, who provided for them in the desert, and who created them out of the dust of the earth.
So yeah I’m the 1% of shingles victims. I’m also the 1 sheep that God sought out when he left the other 99. He cares enough about me that He would let me go through shingles again so that I could learn these awesome things. Because I reflect Him the most when I am operating from a humble spirit, secure in His grace, and when I see Him as He truly is, a God of power, of love, and of constance. So if shingles is what it takes for me to grow and learn, than I’ll take it again a million times over.
